Foster care definitely should be something that's temporary, but as you know from my story and Alisha's, it has been anything but temporary. It was a permanent solution until our adulthood.
To make that not be the case goes back to the supports you can give to people who are willing to adopt. Many of these foster parents who are willing to temporarily help a child would also be willing to forever help a child. It is supposed to be a temporary solution, and I honour foster parents who come forward, but more needs to be done to make sure that no child has only temporary....
I know measures such as the Heart Gallery, in which children make the choice to be a part of a program, to be a part of their own future of being adopted.... It is hugely impactful. It brings results; it brings permanency. It brings older adoption, for a lot of us who don't have that hope of being adopted because we're teenagers—and it is hard to take on a teenager—and it brings forward those people who are willing to take on a teenager. It brings forward people who just want to be parents and maybe don't want to change any diapers.
We should never have temporary and child.... There should always be a long-term, permanent, forever plan for them.